After lunch, the three of them parted ways with Sojiro. Although the wrestler really wanted to recruit Henry to participate in a larger event in Qingzhi Town to make a lot of money, he was nearly half a hundred years old, and he also knew that there were things that could not be forced. Even if the meal he invited the three of them to eat was really expensive, it was not asking Henry to have anything in return immediately.

This is the difference between young people and middle-aged people who have been through storms and waves. Young lads like Galeva or Age, they always want to see results quickly, expect to be rewarded immediately for every effort, and are too careful about what they have done.

But middle-aged people who have experienced decades of ups and downs in the world and ups and downs are very aware of the fact that everything in the world is not always a fact that there is a pay.

The people of the Land of the Moon have a popular concept called "fate", which is difficult to find in any of the languages of Rigal, so it was extremely difficult for the Lamanites to translate books on this subject.

"Fate" is some kind of inexplicable cause and effect relationship, and it is also a kind of bond, a kind of connection. If you have a fate, even if you are completely unrelated, you will eventually become partners because of some accidents and coincidences, and if you don't, no matter how hard you try to please the other party, maybe the more you whisper and practice yourself, the more the other party will despise and don't want to deal with it.

Being at ease with what happens, free and easy without being forced, is a common trait of middle-aged people who have experienced more. And what Sojiro said was just to come to Qingzhi by the way, so he walked with the three of them, and it didn't seem to be just an excuse to get closer.

All in all, after the three men who had separated from Sojiro decided on their route, they began to walk towards the edge of the river from the alley behind the hotel, avoiding the bustling crowds.

The busy Yongchuan River tributaries converge with the main channel of the Eigawa River and another tributary channel near Aochi, so that the river is so wide at its widest point in the southwest direction that the embankment on one side of the river is completely invisible to the other side.

In the early years, when it was a craftsman village, the overall structure of Qingzhi was basically the same as other places - the houses were built on the shore, so that it was convenient for domestic water, and the villagers could also catch fish and shrimp for a good time.

However, after it was decided that the city should be built and replanned, the houses on the shore were demolished and removed. In the following decades, the reserved embankment was repeatedly widened by manpower, and various reinforcements and trestle designs were added to make it easier for merchant ships to unload their cargo.

Since you live near the water, it is a matter of course to take advantage of your geographical advantages.

There is only one natural waterway formed by the tributaries of the Yongchuan River, which is abundant in water, but Kazuto has made many small canals and canals about two people wide with bricks and stones that run through the entire Qingzhi.

These small man-made canals are shallow enough for large boats, and they are designed to be so good that the three of them got the answer after a short walk.

Using a bamboo pole as a traction, large bundles of bamboo are pulled by workers and transported down the waterway. Thanks to the buoyancy of the water, it is easy for one person to carry a large amount of cargo that is difficult for several people to carry by land.

Water transportation is the most cost-effective method in any place, and in the country of the moon, where bamboo is a natural material, it is also inseparable from the convenience of water transportation.

Even if there are higher-quality bamboos and more skilled craftsmen in other places, if the mountain roads are difficult to pass and can only be transported on foot, considering the limited distance of people and the fact that only small batches of utensils can be transported at a time, it will definitely not be able to develop into an industrial and commercial town of this scale.

The prosperity and decline of anything is often the result of many factors. Even if there are some things that will play a decisive role, it is more like a long-term accumulation that finally ushered in an explosion under this opportunity, and if the timing is not right, then even the same factors may not be able to turn over any ripples.

But let's get back to the rest.

Walking along one of the canals, the noise of tourists passing by the busy shopping street is gradually left behind. They walked to what looked like the old town to the southeast, and many of the buildings here were old. Although there are some shops, they are completely absent from the crowds of the big chambers of commerce next to the river.

These small shops are crowded together in a row with the flavor of the country of the moon, and the main body of the wooden structure is accompanied by paper windows and paper doors, and because the town of Qingzhi is a dirt road, there is often a curtain hanging above the eaves of the merchants to keep out the dust.

The Wajin are generally smaller than the Rigales, and for the sages who are nearly two meters tall, walking here is like entering Lilliputia.

The lower edge of the hat he wore was flush with the roofs of the buildings, and when he looked up, he could see the top of the building. Henry could even see a few sparrows chirping on the rooftop, while a wild cat hid in the shadows of the ridge, hunched over and approaching them lightly.

The faded walls and the moss-covered brown-black wooden edges tell the story of the city, most likely more than 100 years old. But perhaps because of this, business here is not very good. Many of the store's display cases are sparsely stocked with few items, and a few have even ajar doors.

Even in a country as peaceful as the Land of the Moon, ten years and ten years are different. Judging from these shops alone, the history of Aochi Town should not be particularly long.

All in all, there are not many shoppers, but there are still a few people on the road. Without exception, they are all people who dress relatively secretly, obviously not wanting to reveal their true colors.

As a large-scale industrial and commercial town, Qingzhi Town, which is crowded with people, is also a good hiding place due to its smooth waterways. Although it can't be compared to the real three-way area like Swamp Village, there are people with all kinds of stories coming and going.

There are only single shadows or groups of three or two, and the common point is that they all carefully keep their distance from each other, and they do not come up to talk enthusiastically.

The trio's destination was soon reached, a lonely shop nestled deep in an alley, with the words "Iron House" scrawled on faded wooden signs, and the curtain hanging from the doorway was yellow, as if it hadn't been changed in a long time.

Henry took the lead and approached directly, while Mira reached out to stop Sakura, and used herself to block her diagonally in front of her, and entered the room with the sage one left and one right, one in front of the other, and stood on both sides.

The two of them cooperated to form an angle, and in an instant, they had a panoramic view of the entire interior of the hut.

Sakura couldn't see this clearly, but the store manager, who was sitting at the old table and smoking a cigarette without a puff, raised his eyelids.

"Oh, it's been a long time since I've seen anyone like that. But the two of you are not human. "The store manager's hair is a little thin, and he has a whip hairstyle at the back of his head that is only allowed by Japanese samurai, but he is wearing only a cotton suit, not a brocade commonly used by Chinese people.

"Hmm. The sage nodded, and then did not shy away from taking off his hat, revealing his face with gray-blue eyes.

"Oh, it's the Southern Barbarians. But the store manager didn't seem to be overly surprised, although his expression changed a little after seeing Mira and Sakura, who came in later, even if they were disguised, they could still be seen to be women, but there was no big movement.

The country of the moon has been communicating with the Lamanites for more than a hundred years, and even if the people above have restricted communication, the information about them is not really new to the people.

But this did not seem to be entirely the reason for his indifference - it was the right place, Henry took a step forward and sat down on the chair opposite the shopkeeper so that his eyes were level rather than looking down, a detail that made the other man raise an eyebrow, and the sage spoke: "A few knives, I want you to see them." ”

He and the store manager began to communicate, while Mira and Sakura, who walked in, began to wait and see.

The interior of the shop is not very spacious, boxy, and together with the place that looks like a living room blocked by a screen at the back, it is about the size of two normal-sized rooms combined. In addition to some randomly stacked weapons, there are also a number of farm tools hanging on the front. There was a lot of dust on the weapons, but most of the farm tools were as good as new, and it seemed that this should be the shopkeeper's main business now.

From the outside, it looks a lot like a harmless old blacksmith.

But this is just a façade, and it is precisely because the sage knows this that he entrusted Sojiro to inquire about it, and then came here.

It is very difficult to find the people of Galeva in a small town with tens of thousands of people coming and going every day, and it is very difficult for them to inquire about it themselves, who are not familiar with the place.

They had tried it before, but it didn't go well. While it may be possible to succeed if you continue to try this method, the more you inquire and the more people you come into contact with, the more likely you are to reveal your whereabouts.

So Henry chose to make contact with people in the gray area, although the purpose of disposing of troublesome weapons and buying some extra equipment was also there, but it was really just a passing, or as an entry point.

Why? Why did you make this choice?

It's very simple: in a country that controls certain items, who will be able to get their hands on these items and master the channels through which they can circulate these items?

- I also know that it will definitely not be a civilian class with no background.

If this kind of black-and-white food is not protected by the local wealthy family and the local ruling aristocracy, it will never survive for a long time. Only those who collude or are simply connected to the rulers of Qingzhi Town can have such connections and resources to get those things that are not allowed by the laws of the Moon Country, and to dispose of those things that are too sensitive.

Therefore, although the sage intends to dispose of these weapons is one of the purposes, it is also an entry point to get close to these people and the powerful group behind Qingzhi Town.

The reason for not going directly to the city lord's mansion is also very simple, first of all, it is not a cat or dog that Henry can easily enter if he wants to enter - although to some extent he does have the ability to kill or sneak in - and some things are not suitable for direct spread out: this kind of unspoken rule is like spending money and bribes, and everyone is satisfied with the private and quiet transaction, if you shout "Come and collect my money" and everyone knows, then the other party will have to kill you in order to protect yourself.

Their identity as the Southern Barbarians and the knives that Henry had put on the table at this moment were all similar to this. Once the exposure attracts too much attention and puts the people in power in Qingzhi Town in a state of some kind of pressure, then they are likely to hand over the sage and others in order to protect themselves.

Low-key work is the primary condition for the possibility of cooperation between the two sides - "Oh ~ Oh ~ Oh ~" The store manager let out three meaningful exclamations in succession, obviously recognizing the belonging of this famous knife from the craftsman's inscription on the knife.

"The guest officer, however, is from the Northlands. He spoke to Henry.

"Exactly. The sage nodded, and the shopkeeper paused and asked something that made Sakura and Mira both turn their heads:

"Guest, but you want to find a lost partner?"

"......!" the girl reached out and grabbed the one-handed knife hidden under her clothes, assumed a vigilant posture and began to look around to see if there was an ambush. The store manager watched her series of actions, but Henry sat quietly and calmly, nodding: "Exactly." ”

"Sensei?" he said by directly confirming this fact, which made Mira a a little stunned, and Sakura looked suddenly enlightened after a moment of contemplation.

- The forces that control Qingzhi Town will most likely be neutral rather than on the side of the rebels, if not in favor of Shinkyo.

This is the reason why Henry would admit his existence so bluntly, even exposing the knife.

The still immature Luoan girl can't see this, so she is still very vigilant as if the people here are also rebels, but the sage's actions are as always, based on his meticulous observation and ability to summarize:

Qingzhi is a thriving commercial town, and the bamboo here is sold to many places in the south with the help of the water transportation of the Yongchuan River. Naturally, the local rulers also made a lot of money because of the thriving bamboo trade, as evidenced by the splendid palaces and various buildings - what does this mean?

It means that he is "content with the status quo".

It was planned and built by a land doctor sent by Shinkyo, and although they had to pay taxes to Shinkyo, it was because of the harmony with the south that they were able to sell bamboo and prosper.

Tourists and traders were the source of the town's prosperity, and if the rebels went to war with Xinjing, it would obviously be gone.

This is a very common occurrence in all countries. Vested interests tend to be those who hate changes in the situation, while wars are often started by those who are dissatisfied with the situation. Therefore, the more prosperous and wealthy the territory in this northern land, the more likely it is that it does not belong to the northern rebel samurai group.

Of course, the sage was not so simple as to think that these people must be friends. Even if the prosperity of Qingzhi Town is based on peace with the south, and its geographical location in the northland makes them even more similar to the swamp village, which is the type that is still vacillating between Shinkyo and the rebels at this stage.

But this is also their entry point, as long as the people of Kaleva and Aya are not stupid enough to directly hand over the important life-saving source of the rebel list directly to the people in power of Qingzhi, then the group that firmly grasps this life-saving straw is still valuable.

The rebels don't have the military strength to directly compete with Xinjing, so they have to be patient, which is also the information they knew before; and Qingzhi is located in the north and borders the rebels, so he can't easily expose his walk, and has to take the dark road to contact the people in power; in order to curry favor with Xinjing, as long as Aya more or less says that he has important information, he will not harm them, but will help.

Otherwise, if the rebels were defeated in the future and this was exposed, Xinjing would not give them good fruits to eat.

It is a refugee who escaped from the swamp village, and it is a strange and eye-catching combination of the Southern Barbarians and the Yi people and Dr. Xingyong. And to put it mildly, whether it is a young porter, a Yi tribe, a lady doctor, or even a priest Alfonso, who are not particularly good at running for their lives, if they come here, they will definitely be exposed, and will be discovered by the local authorities.

Based on the sum of all these details, the sage made such a move, and judging by the store manager's answers, his reasoning was correct - as expected.

Sakura had figured it out and gave Henry a deep look, and with just a little observation and a little reasoning, he made the right choice without any mistake. This ability made Oiran feel a little mixed, and she could only be glad that this person was on the same side as herself.

And our Luo'an girl, who is still a little less popular, still hasn't fully understood all this, and she is still taking time to think about it. The sage didn't explain it to her, and he didn't plan to do so. Education is a thing that is more profound to observe and learn on its own than to throw it directly at the answer, and Miss Luo An vaguely senses that what her teacher is doing is purposeful, and it is related to confluence with other people, but she has not yet been able to get a full picture of it.

Thinking and observation skills have yet to be developed, after all, she is still young.

Anyway, after Henry gave an affirmative answer, the store manager glanced at the three of them, and then nodded.

"Come with me. As he spoke, he tugged at a hemp rope under the table, and the screen behind him was pulled open to reveal a walkway.